{* Inline styles are used for the login buttons here because the use of #menu id selector supercedes use of selectors *}
{* here without the use of !important. Rather than fix #menu, just port pages to HTML5 templates. -- MM 2013-08-16 *} ?>

Patricia's Notebooks

Chapter 2

If you knew Emily, you could just tell this was her room. All the walls and even part of the ceiling was covered with posters of celebrities. The very old TV with antennas was not exactly Emily’s style, but I recognized most of her furniture from her old room. Her laptop was sitting on her desk that has various fruits painted on it. She had owned that desk ever since I met her.
“Cool,” I said, “is there anything else you need to show me before dinner?”
“I guess not, unless you want to see every single room. Hey, since you will be here for a whole week and this room only had one bed, do you want to go get the key for the room next to this one and put your bags in that one?”
“Sure,” I replied, “then dinner will probably be ready.”
“Yup,” Emily said as she led me out of her room and locked the door.

As she was in the middle of turning the key, we heard, “I’ll come with you.”

Emily let out a little yelp and she turned around a screamed, “Acario! What have I told you about sneaking up on me like that?”

“Sorry,” Acario mumbled, “I just wanted to come with you guys.” I decided to intervene before this got out of hand. “Hey Acario,” I said making my voice sound far more cheerful than I felt. “I haven’t seen you since Thanksgiving. Gosh, has it been six months already?”

“Yeah,” he said meanwhile Emily was making a face at him.

“Alright,” I said, much louder than necessary, “let's go get the key”.

We descended down the stairs and entered through the main doors. Emily walked up to a sort of built-in cabinet in one corner of the room. It make a creaking sound when she opened it. There were way too many keys to count that were all hanging on little brass hooks labeled with masking tape that was peeling off. Her hand found the hook with number 73 on the tape above it. Dangling from the hook was two keys, both with a 73 engraved in them. She lifted one from the hook and shut the door.

“Catch,” she said as she tossed me the key. I let out a yelp as I almost dropped it, but caught it at the last minute. “It’s a key Patricia, not a crystal ball. It’s not going to break if you drop it.” She pushed open the doors that led to the kitchen and picked up my bags which she handed to me.

“Um,” I stammered, “a little help would be nice.”

“Sorry,” she said and grabbed my pillow from me.

“Thanks,” I said sarcastically, “that’s so much lighter.”

Acario took my backpack from me and seemed surprised by its weight.

“What do you have in here? Rocks?”

“Notebooks,” I said while pushing the doors open to go outside. We raced back upstairs and I fit the number 73-key into the lock and turned the key. The room looked like a standard hotel room with a bed, a very old looking television, a nightstand and a dresser. The bed was not made up and had no sheets or blankets on it. Too bad that Emily’s parents hadn’t hired a maid. I set my zebra duffel bag down on the bed. Emily put my pillow on the bed and Acario set my backpack down on the floor.

“Alright,” Emily said, “time for that casserole.”

When we got back to the kitchen Emily’s mom looked up from a steaming casserole and smiled. “I was right about to go find you three. Dinner is served.” We sat down at the dining room table which was a bit small for seven people, but we managed to fit. There was a sort of awkward silence at first while everyone dish up their food. My mother broke it by saying, “Maybe you kids can go to the town tomorrow.”

“No thank you,” Emily said loudly. “I have no interest in going to the one store the town has, the one restaurant, or the library.”

I could tell Emily had a lot to say about the town, but I cut her off, “I’d like to see the library. I bet it’s a great place to go to learn about the history of this town.”

“Patricia,” she sighed, “you are such a nerd.”

“Well what do you suggest we do tomorrow?”

Emily was silent and her mom said, “well, that’s settled. You three can go to the library tomorrow while us adults go bowling in Afton.

“Bowling?” Emily inquired. “Yes,” her mother answered, “That’s what we decided to do tomorrow.”